Hero pit bull saves 8-year-old boy from attack, drags him to safety

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OREGON COITY, Oregon — An Oregon City family is calling their pit bull a hero.

Tuesday evening, a group of kids were playing near a creek down a steep embankment behind their apartment complex when one of the kids stepped on a rotten log, unleashing a swarm of bees.

The kids tried making their way back up the hill toward home for help, but 8-year-old Jesse-Cole Shaver couldn’t.

Luckily, that’s when “Hades” did her doggone best to help, grabbing Jesse-Cole by the leg of his pants.

“Hades saw me and came and dragged me up to the grass and stopped and let me crawl on her back and took me to my mom,” Jesse-Cole told Fox 12.

His mother, who did not want to be identified, says she was in her car when she heard the kids screaming and running up the hill surrounded by bees. She was astonished to see her dog dragging her son to safety, after he’d already been stung at least 24 times.

“A couple of these kids could have gotten really sick or died, I’m sure of it,” she said.

Her daughter, Jasmine Jones, 14, was stung five times and is allergic to bees, so she ran to grab her EpiPen while a neighbor called 911. Both children were taken to Willamette Falls Hospital for treatment and were released after a few hours.

In a discussion of the Denver ban, Assistant City Attorney Kory Nelson recently told the San Francisco Chronicle that:

“Since 1989, when that city instituted a pit bull ban, ‘we haven’t had one serious pit bull attack,’ said Kory Nelson, a Denver assistant city attorney. His city’s assertion that ‘pit bulls are more dangerous than other breeds of dog’ has withstood legal challenges, he said.

‘We were able to prove there’s a difference between pit bulls and other breeds of dogs that make pit bulls more dangerous,’ he said.”

In a November 2011, public health statistics published by Global Toronto showed that pit bull bites dropped dramatically after Ontario adopted the Dog Owners Liability Act in 2005, an act that banned pit bulls:

The number of dog bites reported in Toronto has fallen since a ban on pit bulls took effect in 2005, public health statistics show.

A total of 486 bites were recorded in 2005. That number fell generally in the six years following, to 379 in 2010.

Provincial laws that banned ‘pit bulls,’ defined as pit bulls, Staffordshire terriers, American Staffordshire terriers, American pit bull terriers and dogs resembling them took effect in August 2005. Existing dogs were required to be sterilized, and leashed and muzzled in public.

Bites in Toronto blamed on the four affected breeds fell sharply, from 71 in 2005 to only six in 2010. This accounts for most of the reduction in total bites.
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Salina, KS

Rose Base, director of the Salina Animal Shelter who lobbied for the ordinance, told the Salina Journal:

The ordinance has made a difference, she said. Records at the Salina Animal Shelter indicate there were 24 reported pit bull bites in 2003 and 2004, and only five since — none from 2009 to present.

Salina has 62 registered pit bulls, Base said. Before the ordinance she guessed there were “close to 300.” Since the first of this year three of the registered pit bulls have died of old age.

“We definitely haven’t had the severity of bites that we had in the past,” Base said. “Our community has been somewhat safer because of the law that was passed
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Prince George’s County, MD
Prince George’s County passed a pit bull ban in 1996. In August 2009, Rodney Taylor, associate director of the county’s Animal Management Group, said that the number of pit bull biting incidents has fallen:

“Taylor said that during the first five to seven years of the ban, animal control officials would encounter an average of 1,200 pit bulls a year but that in recent years that figure has dropped by about half. According to county statistics, 36 pit bull bites, out of 619 total dog bites, were recorded in 2008, down from 95 pit bull bites, out of a total of 853, in 1996.”
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Salina KS (a second article)

Note that they admit that the pit bull ban did not reduce the number of bites, but it did reduce the severity of bites reported by all breeds. Proof that when pit bull deniers find a jurisdiction that banned pit bulls, but reported no decrease in overall bites, is a moot point. Its death and dismemberment we are focusing on, not bite counts.

In the monthly city newsletter, In Touch, published in September 2006, the City of Salina reported that the pit bull ban adopted in 2005 significantly reduced pit bull biting incidents in just a 12 month period.

The number of pit bull bites depicted in the “Salina Pit Bull Bites Reported” graph shows 2002 with 13 pit bull bites, 2003 with 11 pit bull bites, 2004 with 15 pit bull bites and 2005 with only one bite. The newsletter notes that “animal bites reported have remained constant, but the severity of bites have decreased dramatically” since the enactment of the pit bull ban

David

The point is, other dogs bite and release causing a band aid or a stitch or two, it is only Pit bulls and Pit bull crosses and others like Bullmastiffs, Rotts etc. that attack and can not change their Genetic reality to Kill, Maul, Maim, Disfigure, Dismember, cause Life Flights or trips to the Intensive Care Unit.

These are the kind of attacks that BSL is designed to stop and they do so very successfully, they are not meant to stop everyday minor fear bites from normal dogs as those are not the attacks that pit bull type dogs carry out.

That is the big difference in the outcome and should result in a completely different attitude towards these dogs and why they should be banned outright.

It wasn’t that pit bull type dog attacks stopped, but rather that attacks that Kill, Maul, Maim, Disfigure, Dismember, cause Life Flights or trips to the Intensive Care Unit stopped because pit bulls were banned.!!

The stats are very clear and accurate and show this reality even if you want to put your head in the sand, it still is what it is.

In April 2008, the Springfield-Greene County Health Department released data to a local TV station – following the City of Springfield’s adoption of a 2006 pit bull ban:

“The Springfield-Greene County Health Department reports that dog bites and vicious dog complaints are declining since the implementation of the Pit Bull Ordinance in the City of Springfield two years ago. In 2005 the health department fielded 18 vicious dog complaints, but only eight in 2007. Bites were down from 102 in 2005 to 87 in 2007.”

“The ordinance, which requires pit bull owners to register their dogs annually, has also resulted in fewer pit bull dogs being impounded at the Springfield Animal Shelter.

In 2005 there were 502 pit bull and pit bull mixes impounded, compared to only 252 in 2007.

According to statistics taken from the Springfield-Greene County Health Department, as reported in the News-Leader March 12, for the three-year period beginning in 2004, there were 42 “vicious” animal attacks recorded in the jurisdiction covered.

After passing the local ordinance banning or strictly controlling the ownership of pit bull or pit bull types, the number of attacks has dropped dramatically.

For the five-year period from 2007-2011, there was a total of 14.

“Because we are impounding fewer pit bulls, we’ve also seen overcrowding in our shelter subside,” says assistant director Clay Goddard. “It is the natural tendency of pit bulls to fight, so our animal control staff are forced to segregate them in individual pens.

When we have several pit bulls in the shelter simultaneously, this severely limits space for other dogs.”
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Washington

In 2008, the City of Wapato passed an ordinance that bans new pit bulls, rottweilers and mastiffs. Nine months after its adoption, in March 2009, Wapato Police Chief Richard Sanchez reported successful results:

“Nine months into the ban and police calls about vicious dogs have been cut in half. The Wapato Police tell Action News they’ve gone from 18 reports in January, February and March of last year to seven so far in ’09. “Seven calls in three months… that’s nothing,” says Chief Richard Sanchez, Wapato Police Department.

When the City of Woonsocket was debating a pit bull ordinance in June 2009, the animal control supervisor in Pawtucket, John Holmes, spoke about the enormous success of Pawtucket’s 2003 pit bull ban:

“Holmes says he predicted that it would take two years for Pawtucket to experience the full benefit of the law after it was passed, but the results were actually apparent in half the time.

“It’s working absolutely fantastic,” said Holmes. “We have not had a pit bull maiming in the city since December of 2004.”

Holmes says the law also capped the number of legal pit bulls in Pawtucket to about 70 animals.”

In July 2013, Pawtucket Mayor Donald Grebien and City Council President David Moran sent a joint letter to Rhode Island Gov. Lincoln Chafee asking that he reject a statewide anti-BSL measure before him.

While they agree that some pit bulls can make good pets, said Moran and Grebien, “the number and severity of pit bull attacks against people and other animals in the early 2000s required us to take the action we did.”

Prior to the 2004 city ordinance, Pawtucket Animal Control officers responded to many calls about serious pit bull attacks against people and animals, according to the letter. Two of the worst cases involved a nine-month pregnant woman and a child.

While proponents of the bill argue that breed-specific bans don’t work, said Grebien and Moran, “the results in Pawtucket dramatically prove that they do work.”

In 2003, the year before the local ban on pit bulls went into effect, 135 pit bulls, all from Pawtucket, were taken in at the Pawtucket Animal Control Shelter for a variety of health and safety reasons, with 48 of those dogs needing to be put down.

In 2012, 72 pit bulls were taken in, only 41 from Pawtucket, with only six needing to be euthanized, according to the two officials.
“That’s a tremendous improvement,” they state in their letter.
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Per section 8-55 of Denvers pit bull ban:

A pit bull, is defined as any dog that is an APBT, Am Staf Terrier, Staff Bull Terrier, or any dog displaying the majority of physical traits of anyone (1) or more of the above breeds, or any dog exhibiting those distinguishing characteristics which substantially conform to the standards set by the AKC or UKC for any of the above breed.

Over the course of 22 years, the Denver ban has withstood numerous battles in state and federal courts. It has been used as a model for over 600 USA cities that legislate pit bulls, as well as US Navy, Air Force, Marine and Army bases ( so much for Sgt Stubby).

without it, we’d see just what we see in Miss E’s lame replies. Every pit owner would claim their land shark was anything but a pit bull.

Miami Dade county voted 66% to keep their pit bull ban, just as it is worded, last year.

Opinion: There is no need for pit bulls
By Dr. David A. Billmire June 29, 2014

Dr. Billmire is professor and director of the Division of Craniofacial and Pediatric Plastic Surgery at Cincinnati Children’s Hospital Medical Center.

As one who, for the last 30 years, has been on the receiving end of the dog-bite injuries that pass through the Children’s Hospital Emergency Room, as well as on the staff at the Shriners Hospitals for Children where we see the late effects of these injuries from across the nation, I can categorically tell you that the problems associated with dog bites are indeed breed-specific.

When I started my career, the most common dog-bite injuries were from German shepherds and occasionally retrievers. These injuries were almost always provoked, such as food-related or stepping on the dog, and in almost every instance, the dog reacted with a single snap and release – essentially a warning shot. There were no pack attacks.

Starting about 25 years ago, my colleagues and I started to see disturbingly different types of injuries. Instead of a warning bite, we saw wounds where the flesh was torn from the victim. There were multiple bite wounds covering many different anatomical sites. The attacks were generally unprovoked, persistent and often involved more than one dog. In every instance the dog involved was a pit bull or a pit bull mix.

Now, I am a dog lover and virtually every one of my family members has a dog. But it is a fact that different dogs have always been bred for specific qualities. My sheltie herded, my daughter’s setter flushes birds and my pug sits on my lap – this is what they are bred for. Pit bulls were bred to fight and kill and, unfortunately, many current breeders favor these aggressive traits. There is no need for any dog with the characteristics.

I recently gave a talk summarizing my 30 years of practice in pediatric plastic and reconstructive surgery, and one segment was titled “Why I Hate Pit Bulls.” I watched a child bleed to death one night in our operating room because a pit bull had torn his throat out. I have had to rebuild the skull of a child who had his ears and entire scalp torn off.

I am currently reconstructing the face of a child, half of whose face has been torn off down to the bone. I have had to rebuild noses, lips, eyelids, jaws and cheeks of numerous children. On older children, I have had to reconstruct legs and hands. The unfortunate young victim whose recent attack has initiated this discussion will bear the scars of this attack for the rest of her life.

Based on my extensive experience, I believe that the risk posed by pit bulls is equivalent to placing a loaded gun with the safety off on the coffee table. In my opinion, these dogs should be banned. I know this is an unpopular stand in some circles, but how many mauled children do we have to see before we realize the folly of allowing these dogs to exist?

The arguments made by advocates of these dogs are the same arguments made by people who feel that assault weapons are an essential part of daily living. There are plenty of breeds available that peacefully coexist with human society. There is no need for pit bulls.

WAUSAU – The city of Antigo has been pit-bull-free for almost 20 years.

In 1995, the city hired an attorney who suggested that the city adopt an ordinance prohibiting the oft-maligned dogs from the city, said Kaye Matucheski, city clerk-treasurer for Antigo. The ordinance largely was a preventative measure; Antigo hadn’t had any vicious dog attacks, but pit bulls were being blamed for maulings all over the United States, so the city acted before an attack happened rather than waiting to react afterward.

The ordinance the city adopted prohibits pit bulls and mixes of the breed, as well as any other vicious or dangerous animals, from being in the city. In the almost 20 years since it was adopted, Antigo has had no attacks, no maulings, and no dogs killed by pit bulls or other dogs.

Contrast that with Wausau, where in June, a woman was attacked by a pit bull that charged from its home and killed the Chihuahua the woman was walking. That dog remains in quarantine at the Humane Society of Marathon County as a court case seeking to have it euthanized moves forward.

Meanwhile, the owner of the dog was cited June 19 for allowing a dog to run loose, keeping a vicious dog, failing to license the animal and failure to have it vaccinated for rabies, according to Wausau Police Lt. Mike Juedes. And the woman who was attacked, Cindy Ryder, has called on the city to ban pit bulls as Antigo and other cities have.

Municipal leaders where such bans have been adopted say the rules are simple and they work. They ensure that pit bulls are kept under control to protect the safety of residents and other animals. Critics of the laws, though, say they punish good owners for the actions of bad owners.

The village of Stratford and the city of Greenwood both have similar bans on pit bulls and dangerous animals. Lonna Klinke, Greenwood’s clerk-treasurer, said her city’s experience is much like Antigo’s: no specific incidents inspired the ban, and since it was adopted, the city has had no attacks and issued no citations.

Greenwood, she said, has no pit bull problem.

How the bans work

The June attack in Wausau was the latest in a series of maulings that has seen 10 dogs declared vicious by the city over the last six months, and police are called almost every week to a report of a problem animal running loose or threatening people.

Marathon County spends about $68,000 a year sheltering stray, surrendered and impounded dogs, and last year, about half of the dogs in the Humane Society of Marathon County’s shelter were pit bulls awaiting adoption or euthanasia.

In contrast, Antigo is pit-bull free, and authorities spend almost no resources chasing the problem dogs, Matucheski, the clerk-treasurer, said.

“If there is an incident where we’re informed that a resident has a pit bull, they are visited by the police department and asked to remove the pit bull,” Matucheski said.

Pit bulls that are found in the city are impounded, Matucheski said, and are kept at the humane society, where they can be adopted by people who live outside city limits.

When Antigo adopted its ban, pit bulls already in the city were allowed to stay, but owners had to register them with the city and follow strict guidelines, including muzzling their animals and keeping them on short leashes when they are outdoors — a procedure similar to those in other municipalities that have adopted bans.

According to national dog attack statistics from http://www.dogsbite dot org, pit bulls and pit bull mixes represent about 6 percent of all dogs in the United States but are responsible for the overwhelming majority of all maulings.

Between 1982 and 2013, pit bulls were responsible for 275 deaths and 1,779 maimings, according to the organization, which tracks dog attacks.

Over the same time period, Rottweilers caused 81 deaths and 294 maimings; German shepherds caused 15 deaths and 63 maimings; and Dobermans caused seven deaths and 10 maimings.

About the bans:
Many pit bull bans share stipulations:

Bans on dogs known as “pit bulldogs,” including the Staffordshire bull terrier, the American pit bull terrier, the American Staffordshire terrier breeds, and any dog that has the appearance or characteristics of any of these breeds

Pit bulls that were registered with the city before a ban was implemented are allowed to remain, provided the owner uses a muzzle on the pit bull and that it is kept on a leash no more than four feet long

Owners who have been allowed to keep their pit bulls must have a minimum of $50,000 in single-incident insurance

Owners must post Beware of Dog signs that can be easily seen by the public

Any puppies born to a registered pit bull must be removed from the city within six weeks of their birth

The Great American Pit Bull Experiment
By Heather Wilhelm – July 17, 2014

I’ll admit it: I’m not a huge pit bull fan. I don’t hate them with a fiery passion, as many people do. I’m not sure banning them is the greatest idea. But I’d certainly rather not hang out with them in my spare time, and I’d be alarmed to see one off a leash. In my brain, fair or not, they look about as cuddly as a king-sized, long-clawed, chain-smoking crocodile.

This is rather bad news for me, considering that in many parts of the country, legions of pit bulls—and enthusiastic pit bull supporters—seem to be falling from the sky. After the sad story of Michael Vick’s multiple dog abuses broke in 2007, pit bull adoptions skyrocketed. Pit bull rescue organizations are popping up everywhere; here in Austin, Texas, I’m greeted by panting pit bulls sporting cheery “Adopt Me!” jackets almost every time I go out for a run. I saw one just this morning, in fact, towed by a young, optimistic-looking volunteer—and wearing a suspiciously hefty choke chain.

This week, Esquire magazine published “The State of the American Dog,” a personal, almost mystical paean to pit bulls. Written by Tom Junod, who has won two National Magazine Awards and has owned at least two pit bulls, the article outlines the sad state of the breed in America. Pit bulls are overbred, abused, neglected, abandoned, and euthanized in stunning numbers: as many as 3,000, Esquire reports, are put down every day. Pit bulls are also, at least in the eyes of Junod and thousands of pit bull lovers across the country, horribly misunderstood. There is no such thing as a bad dog, in this view. There is only a bad owner.

Pit bull enthusiasts will tell you their dogs are sweet, loving, and funny—and that their dogs wouldn’t hurt a flea. Unfortunately, my experience has been different. One woman I know was randomly attacked by an unleashed pit bull while she was lying on the grass in an Austin park. A former co-worker of mine, meanwhile, was attacked by her pet pit bull when she was 9 years old. “Oh, but really, he didn’t mean it—he was the sweetest dog ever,” she insisted, showing me the massive scar on her leg.

Denial, as always, ain’t just a river in Egypt: It’s a common trait among pit bull people. Statistical reports from a wide range of sources—including the CDC, PETA, the Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia, the Annals of Surgery, and a multi-decade, comprehensive report from the editor of Animal People magazine—show one common theme: Pit bulls, like it or not, are far and away the most dangerous dog in America. In terms of fatal attacks, maulings, and bites, no other dog, not even the Rottweiler, comes close. Pit bulls are also known for attacking suddenly, without warning, and after years of apparent “sweetness.”

This shouldn’t be surprising. Pit bulls were originally bred to fight other dogs to the death, not to sit on your lap. Here in the U.S., with the resurrection of dogfighting, many breeders have worked to amplify pit bull aggressiveness. Dogs of a certain breed may not be identical drones, but they do tend to share common traits. This, of course, is Dog Breeding 101.

But these days, it seems, no one wants to be a dog racist—and this is where things start to get really weird. “The opposition to pit bulls might not be racist,” Junod writes in his Esquire piece. “It does, however, employ racial thinking.” Jeez, Louise. I suppose, then, it is time that I confess: I am a pug supremacist. Go ahead and judge me, America. Say what you will, but the worst thing a pug can do is fart you to death.

Wade into the Great American Pit Bull Debate—and believe me, it’s raging, online and elsewhere—and you’ll find a fascinating microcosm that closely mirrors American political polarization. When it comes to people and their dogs, nuance is nobody’s friend. On one side, pit bulls are demons, fit for extermination; on the other, they’re angelic godsends fit to babysit infants.

Lest you think I’m exaggerating on that last point, check out a pit bull advocacy page or two. You’ll see photos of “pitties” with their snouts right next to a baby’s face (something dog experts will tell you to never, ever do, no matter the breed) and various claims that pit bulls used to be viewed as “nanny dogs,” fit for the care of children. The “nanny dog” myth has become so widespread, in fact, that even pit bull advocacy group BADRAP recently felt compelled to call off the proverbial dogs, warning parents “there was never such a thing” and that the term was a misleading “recipe for dog bites.”

Pit bull fans can get so intense, in fact, that they sometimes favor dogs over people. Back in March, when an Arizona pit bull named Mickey mauled a 4-year-old boy, protesters hit the streets—in favor of Mickey. A “Save Mickey” Facebook page earned 70,000 likes; the page for Kevin Vicente, the boy torn to shreds, gained less than 500. Thanks to his fans, who largely blamed the boy for “provoking” the dog, Mickey will live out his days at a no-kill shelter.

Pit bull adopters and rescue centers, no doubt, are acting out of an admirable sense of compassion. It remains to be seen whether they’re also acting out of a dangerous level of naivete. Knowingly or not, the growing, feel-good pit bull rescue movement is conducting a massive experiment in American homes. Perhaps it’s true that, when it comes to dogs, breeding isn’t destiny. Perhaps all you need is love. I hope that’s the case. We shall wait and see—but in the meantime, please keep your “pittie” on a very strong leash.

There was concern among dog authorities about American pitbulls being allowed into New Zealand as they were dangerous, unpredictable animals, Mr Coutts said.

“A lot of people in this town get them because they are a staunch dog and they will fight. They are perceived as vicious … It’s frustrating they were ever allowed in the country … we can’t go back now though,” Mr Coutts said.

COUTTS’ comment on a pit car mauling

This sort of thing happens when people own this breed of dog and then don’t look after them.

VICTORIA STILWELL, celebrity dog trainer

Presas are not to be fooled with, they’re dangerous. You’ve got a fighting breed here. You’ve got a dog that was bred for fighting. You’ve got one of the most difficult breeds to handle.

CESAR MILAN, celebrity dog trainer

“Yeah, but this is a different breed…the power that comes behind bull dog, pit bull, presa canario, the fighting breed – They have an extra boost, they can go into a zone, they don’t feel the pain anymore. He is using the bulldog in him, which is way too powerful, so we have to ‘make him dog’ (I guess as in a “regular” dog) so we can actually create the limits.

So if you are trying to create submission in a fighting breed, it’s not going to happen. They would rather die than surrender.”. If you add pain, it only infuriates them..to them pain is that adrenaline rush, they are looking forward to that, they are addicted to it…

That’s why they are such great fighters.” Cesar goes on to say…”Especially with fighting breeds, you’re going to have these explosions over and over because there’s no limits in their brain.”

GARRETT RUSSO, dog trainer

I estimate Medical & Veterinary bills related to injuries caused by pit bulls in the Tompkins Square dog run in 2011, $140,000.00. Estimated Medical (human) & Veterinary (canine) bills from all other breeds and mixed breeds combined during the same period, $5,000.00. (Estimate gathered from reports to by owners to the dog park association.)

STEVE DUNO, dog trainer, pit bull owner

“The dogs that participated in these attacks weren’t Pekingese. You don’t have herds of Pekingese roaming the city attacking people. When someone says all breeds are created equal, well then they’re denying the definition of what a breed is. Breed serves a particular purpose.”

“I like them. They’re eager. They’re athletic. They’re aesthetically pleasing. But even if they’re bred perfectly, they can be problematic, particularly with other dogs.”

“When you combine the breed specific behaviors … with owners who either don’t give a rip, or with owners who (have) too much dog, you have a problem.”

JEAN DONALDSON, dog trainer

Most commonly, she sees dogs with aggression problems. While she’s a fierce opponent of “breed bans” like the proposed outlawing of pit bulls that San Francisco debated two years ago, she believes it’s undeniable that some breeds are predisposed to violence.

Many breeds that were bred as guardians or fighting dogs were carefully designed to not like strangers, she says. She thinks it’s disingenuous of breeders to further enhance this trait, and then expect owners to compensate with training.

ARLENE STERLING, Newaygo County, MI Chief Animal Control Officer

“It is genetically inbred in them to be aggressive. They can be very nice dogs, but they are very prey driven and they are extremely strong. It makes them high risk dogs and it makes them extremely dangerous.”

BOB KERRIDGE, New Zealand SPCA executive director

“That is the only real way to solve this problem – is to license owners and to give them the responsibility that goes with owning a dog. It would be extremely useful when you have a neighbour who is concerned about that dog next door. You can look at it and see they don’t have a license and take it away. That’s owner responsibility.”

“We led the charge to stop the importation of the pitbull because of the concerns they would be crossbred with other dogs… But there’s not a lot we can do about that because it’s happened. We wish someone had listened all those years ago.”

JIM CROSBY, pit bull hired gun

“Line breeding tends to concentrate recessive traits. The propensity for violent attacks by a dog would be a recessive trait.”

MELANIE PFEIFFER, veterinary assistant

Working in a veterinary hospital, you are exposed to all kinds of animal trauma. One of the more common ones is dog fights. I can honestly say that in three out of four cases, an American pit bull terrier is involved. Many times, we are able to save the life of the afflicted, but yesterday, we were not.

I propose that all owned American pit bull terriers be registered and all breeding be halted indefinitely. How many mutilated faces, mangled limbs, butchered pets and even human deaths does it take to convince us that this breed needs to be phased out?

DIANE JESSUP, Washington pit bull owner and expert

“It’s not sensible to get an animal bred for bringing a 2,000-pound bull to its knees and say I’m going to treat this like a soft-mouth Labrador,” says Jessup, the former animal-control officer. She blames novice owners, as much as actual criminals, for bringing the breed into disrepute. “It’s a capable animal, and it’s got to be treated as such.”

JOHN ROCKHOLT, South Carolina dogman

“It’s inhumane not to allow them to fight. If you have to encourage them to fight they are not worth the powder it would take to blow them away. To never allow them any kind of combat…That’s inhumane.”

RAY BROWN, former pit bull owner, breeder, dog fighter

Pit bulls didn’t become dangerous because we fight them; we fight them because the English specifically bred them to be dangerous.

MARK PAULHUS, HSUS southeast regional coordinator

If it chooses to attack, it’s the most ferocious of all dogs. I’ve never known of a pit bull that could be called off (during a fight). They lose themselves in the fight.

F.L. DANTZLER, HSUS director of field services

“They’re borderline dogs. They’re right on the edge all of the time. Even if the dogs are not trained or used for fighting, and even though they are generally good with people, their bloodline makes them prone to violence.”

You will also not prevent the dog from being what he is genetically predisposed to be. Because the inbred postures and behaviors feel good, fitting the body and brain the dog has been bred with, they are internally motivated and internally rewarded.

This means that the behavior is practically impossible to extinguish by manipulating external environmental stimuli.

The reward is not in the environment, but in the dog itself! As Coppinger and Coppinger (2001, p. 202) put it, “The dog gets such pleasure out of performing its motor pattern that it keeps looking for places to display it.” Some dogs get stuck in their particular inbred motor pattern.

As pointed out above, this kind of aggression has appeared in some other breeds as an unexpected and undesired anomaly – the golden retriever, the Berner Senne hund, the cocker spaniel have all had this problem.

The lovers of aggressive breeds try to use these breeding accidents to prove that their aggressive breeds are just like any other dog, “see, they’re no different from the cuddly breeds.” But a cuddly breed sometimes ending up stuck with a genetic disaster does not prove that the behavior is normal canine behavior. All it proves is that the behavior is genetically determined.

“These dogs aren’t killers because they have the wrong owners, rather they attract the wrong owners because they are killers.” The 100 Silliest Things People say about dogs.

JOHN FAUL, animal behaviorist

Faul said they were dangerous and a threat to life. He said the pitbull was bred to be absolutely fearless and had a “hair-trigger” attack response.

“The cardinal rule is that these dogs are not pets,” he said.

“The only way to keep them is in a working environment.”

He said the only relationship one could have with the pitbull was one of “dominance, sub-dominance”, in which the dog was reminded daily of its position.

ANDREW ROWAN, PhD, Tufts Center for Animals

“A pit bull is trained to inflict the maximum amount of damage in the shortest amount of time. Other dogs bite and hold. A Doberman or a German shepherd won’t tear if you stand still.

A pit bull is more likely to remove a piece of tissue. Dogs fight as a last resort under most circumstances. But a pit bull will attack without warning. If a dog shows a submissive characteristic, such as rolling over most dogs wills top their attack. A pit bull will disembowel its victim.”

“A study by Dr Randall Lockwood of the US Humane Society found that pit bulls are more likely to break restraints to attack someone and that pit bulls are more likely to attack their owners, possibly as a result of owners trying to separate their dogs from victims.”

The domestic dog (Canis familiaris), with its more than 400 recognised breeds [1], displays great variation in behaviour phenotypes.

Favourable behaviour is important for well-being and negative traits such as aggression may ruin the owner-dog relationship and lead to relinquishment to shelters or even euthanasia of otherwise healthy dogs [2,3].

Behavioural traits result from an interaction of both genetic and environmental factors. Breed specific behavioural traits such as hunting, herding and calmness/aggression are, however, evidence of a large genetic component and specific behaviours show high heritabilities [4-8].

ALAN BECK, Sc.D

However, Alan Beck, director of the Purdue University School of Veterinary Medicine Center of the Human-Animal Bond, favors letting the breed go into extinction.

“This breed alone is a risk of serious public health factors,” Beck said. “We are keeping them alive against their own best interests.”

Beck said while he does not advocate taking dogs from current and caring owners, he does feel that it has become more of a social and political issue for people than a health one.

“If these dogs were carrying an actual disease, people would advocate euthanizing them,” Beck said. “This breed itself is not natural.”

“It has this sort of mystique that attracts a population of people. Of course, most of these dogs are never going to bite, as champions of the breed will tell you. But most people who smoke don’t get cancer, but we know regulations help reduce a significant risk.”

“I know you’re going to get beat up for this. But they just aren’t good dogs to own. That’s why so many of them are relinquished to shelters. There are too many other breeds out there to take a chance on these guys.”

MERRITT CLIFTON, journalist, Animal People editor

There are very few people, if any, who have written more on behalf of dogs over the past 40-odd years than I have, or spent more time down the back alleys of the developing world observing dogs in the habitats in which normal dogs came to co-evolve with humans.

But appreciation of the ecological roles of street dogs & coyotes, exposing dog-eating and puppy mills, opposition to indiscriminate lethal animal control, introduction of high-volume low-cost spay/neuter and anti-rabies vaccination, introduction of online adoption promotion, encouraging the formation of thousands of new humane societies worldwide, etc., are not to be confused with pit bull advocacy.

Pit bull advocacy is not defending dogs; it is defending the serial killers of the dog world, who kill, injure, and give bad reputations to all the rest. Indeed, pit bull advocacy, because it erodes public trust in dogs and people who care about dogs, stands a good chance of superseding rabies as the single greatest threat to the health, well-being, and human appreciation of all dogs worldwide.

STANLEY COREN, PhD

“A dog’s breed tells us a lot about that dog’s genetic heritage and makeup. Genetics is a strong determinant of personality. In the absence of any other information, we can make a reasonable prediction about how the dog will behave based upon its breed.” p 84

“When we crossbreed, we lose some of that predictability, since which genes will be passed on by each parent and how they will combine is a matter of chance. Fortunately, there is some data to suggest that we can still make predispositions without knowing much about its parentage.

John Paul Scott and John L Fuller carried out a series of selective breeding experiments at the Jackson Laboratories in Bar Harbor, Maine. By happy chance, their results revealed a simple rule that seems to work. Their general conclusion was that a mixed breed dog is most likely to act like the breed that it most looks like.” p 77

“There is no direct eye contact or very little direct eye contact. It is very quick and over with. Which is one reason why with pit bulls and rottweilers, we have problems. Because they’re bred to do direct eye contact and so they are off putting to other dogs and actually scary to other dogs.”

The fourth undesirable characteristic – arousal or excitement – is actually the most problematic. Many bully dogs cannot seem to calm themselves down once they get excited. And once they get excited all their behaviors are exacerbated.

Thus, if a dog is over-confident and has a tendency to body slam or mount, he or she will really crash into the other dog or person when he’s aroused, sometimes inadvertently causing injury. He may begin to play-bite, and then bite harder and harder and harder.

When you try to stop the behavior, the dog often becomes even more “aggressive.” In this way, play can turn into aggression fairly quickly. Research on the brain has shown that excited play has exactly the same chemistry as extreme anger. This allows a play behavior to switch quickly into aggression. And, once the dog has become aggressive a few times, the switch is much easier.

In North America, from 1982-2013, Pit Bull breeds and mixes have seriously attacked 2,990 humans that resulted in 1,777 maimings and 275 deaths.

The bullmastiff is a Pit bull type dog with the same genetic makeup and danger of a pit bull.

The Bullmastiff was a cross of 40% Old English Bulldog or pit bull type dog and 60% English Mastiff

In North America, from 1982-2013, Bullmastiffs have been responsible for 105 serious attacks on humans, resulting in 61 maimings and 15 deaths.

In North America from 1982-2013, Rottweilers were responsible for 514 attacks on humans, resulting in 81 deaths.
Rottweiler mixes were responsible for 30 attacks on humans, resulting in 4 deaths
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The following is a list of the top 10 dog breeds involved in dog attacks in the U.S. and Canada involving humans from September 1982 to December 31, 2013, based on a larger table compiled by Merritt Clifton, former editor of Animal People, an animal rights charity/news group. Clifton now is the editor of Animals 24-7.

A Bullmastiff is considered a pit bull type dog and a pit bull mix between a pit bull and a mastiff and is 40% pit bull.

The report states that the numbers are compiled from press accounts dating to 1982. It only includes attacks by dogs of clearly identified breed type or ancestry, as designated by animal control officers or others with evident expertise, which have been kept as pets. All accounts are cross-checked by date, location and identity of the victim, according to the report.

Attacks by police dogs, guard dogs and dogs trained specifically to fight are not included in the report.
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About 31,400 dogs attacked about 61,500 other animals in the U.S. in 2013, killing 43,500 and seriously injuring 18,100.

The animals killed included about 12,000 dogs, 8,000 cats, 6,000 hooved animals, and 17,000 other small domestic animals, primarily poultry.

The seriously injured included about 12,400 dogs, 4,000 cats, and 1,700 hooved animals. Few small mammals and poultry survived reported dog attacks.

Pit bulls inflicted 99% of the total fatal attacks on other animals (43,000); 96% of the fatal attacks on other dogs (11,520); 95% of the fatal attacks on livestock (5,700) and on small mammals and poultry (16,150); and 94% of the fatal attacks on cats (11,280).

About 30,000 pit bulls were involved in attacks on other animals, many of them killing multiple other animals.

There are about 3.2 million pit bulls in the U.S. at any given time, according to the annual Animal24-7 surveys of dogs offered for sale or adoption via online classified ads.

Thus in 2013 about one pit bull in 107 killed or seriously injured another animal, compared with about one dog in 50,000 of other breeds.

Nationally, fatal and disfiguring attacks by dogs from shelters and rescues have exploded from zero in the first 90 years of the 20th century to 80 since 2010, including 58 by pit bulls, along with 22 fatal & disfiguring attacks by other shelter dogs, mostly Rottweilers & bull mastiffs.

Altogether, 33 U.S. shelter dogs have participated in killing people since 2010, including 24 pit bulls, seven bull mastiffs, and two Rottweilers.

The only dogs rehomed from U.S. shelters to kill anyone before 2000 were two wolf hybrids, rehomed in 1988 and 1989, respectively.

I have logged fatal & disfiguring dog attacks in the U.S. and Canada since September 1982.

Of the 4,953 dogs involved in fatal and disfiguring attacks on humans occurring in the U.S. & Canada since September 1982, when I began logging the data, 3,411 (68%) were pit bulls; 556 were Rottweilers; 4,247 (85%) were of related molosser breeds, including pit bulls, Rottweilers, mastiffs, bull mastiffs, boxers, and their mixes.

Of the 567 human fatalities, 299 were killed by pit bulls; 87 were killed by Rottweilers; 430 (75%) were killed by molosser breeds.

Of the 3,008 people who were disfigured, 2,090 (68%) were disfigured by pit bulls; 327 were disfigured by Rottweilers; 2,569 (84%) were disfigured by molosser breeds.

Pit bulls–exclusive of their use in dogfighting–also inflict more than 70 times as many fatal and disfiguring injuries on other pets and livestock as on humans, a pattern unique to the pit bull class.

Fatal and disfiguring attacks by dogs from shelters and rescues have exploded from zero in the first 90 years of the 20th century to 80 in the past four years, including 58 by pit bulls, along with 22 fatal & disfiguring attacks by other shelter dogs, mostly Rottweilers & bull mastiffs.

The only dogs rehomed from U.S. shelters to kill anyone, ever, before 2000 were two wolf hybrids in 1988 and 1989. 33 U.S. shelter dogs & one U.K. shelter dog have participated in killing people since 2010, including 24 pit bulls, seven bull mastiffs, and two Rottweilers.

Surveys of dogs offered for sale or adoption indicate that pit bulls and pit mixes are less than 7% of the U.S. dog population; molosser breeds, all combined, are 9%.

If 27 of 33 dead were killed by pit bull attack, that’s 82% dead by pit attack, 9% dead by ‘molosser’, 3% by some kind of GSD mix, 3% by a husky + possibly pit mix, 3% by Shiba Inu.

If you count the pit-mix mastiffs as pit bull types, that’s 91% killed by attacking pit bull types. Pit types are only about 6% of the entire dog population.

The man who ran into traffic kept pit bulls himself. He knew perfectly well what the two stranger pit bulls that were chasing him would do if they caught him, so he preferred to risk a swift death by oncoming car.

Council Bluffs, Iowa.
Pit bulls are not only problematic in large cities; they threaten mid-sized cities and small towns as well. Located in the heartland, Council Bluffs, Iowa has about 60,000 citizens.

After a series of devastating attacks, beginning in 2003, Council Bluffs joined over 600 U.S. cities and began regulating pit bulls.

The results of the Council Bluffs pit bull ban, which began January 1, 2005, show the positive effects such legislation can have on public safety in just a few years time:1.

“Despite these limitations and concerns
(about identifying the exact ‘breed’ of pit bull type dog responsible for a
killing), the data indicate that Rottweilers and pit bull-type dogs accounted
for 67% of human DBRF in the United States between 1997 and 1998.

It is extremely unlikely that they accounted for anywhere near 60% of dogs in the
United States during that same period and, thus, there appears to be a
breed-specific problem with fatalities.”
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In June 2013, after a Bay Area child was killed by a family pit bull, San Francisco Animal Care and Control cited the decrease in pit bull bites and euthanasia since the adoption of a 2005 pit bull law.

After 12-year-old Nicholas Faibish was fatally mauled by his family’s pit bulls, the city adopted a mandatory spay-neuter law for the breed. The reasoning was that fixed dogs tend to be calmer and better socialized.

Since then, San Francisco has impounded 14 percent fewer pit bulls and euthanized 29 percent fewer – which is a “significant decrease,” said Rebecca Katz, director of the city’s Animal Care and Control department.

Another significant indicator, she said, is that there have been 28 pit bull bites reported in the past three years – and 1,229 bites by other breeds during the same period. In the three-year period before that, there were 45 pit bull bites and 907 incidents involving other breeds.

Results of mandatory breed-specific S/N in SF: success in San Francisco, where in just eight years there was a 49% decline in the number of pit-bulls impounded, a 23% decline in the number of pit-bulls euthanized, and an 81% decline in the number of pit-bulls involved in fatal and disfiguring attacks.

When the City of Auburn debated enacting a pit bull law in January 2010, Sgt. Bill Herndon of the San Francisco Police Department weighed in about the success of San Francisco’s 2005 pit bull law:

“Since requiring all pit bulls to be neutered, they say they are finding fewer pit bulls involved in biting incidents.

Sgt. Bill Herndon, of the San Francisco Police Department’s vicious dog unit, said the numbers and severity of pit bull attacks are down since San Francisco enacted an ordinance in 2005 after the mauling death of 12-year-old Nicholas Faibish.
“The number of complaints of mean pit bulls has dropped dramatically,” Herndon said.

San Francisco’s animal control department reports more than 30 percent fewer pit bulls at the shelter or being euthanized.”
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Ed Boks, Executive director, Yavapai Humane Society (responsible Jan 2004 as director City Center for Animal Care & Control in NYC for trying to rename pit bulls New Yorkies; is pb owner)

Pit bull type dogs represent 3000% the actuarial risk compared to other types of dogs.
Insurance companies will have calculated the risks the other listed breeds represent based on what they’ve had to pay out through the years.

This isn’t ‘prejudice’, this is cold statistical reality. Actuarial realities don’t yield to sentiment or a feeling of entitlement — they just are what they are.
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In 2011, the Annals of Surgery published a critical peer-reviewed scientific study pertaining to severe and fatal pit bull injuries (Mortality, Mauling and Maiming by Vicious Dogs, by John K. Bini, et al.), authored by doctors at San Antonio University Hospital.

In the landmark 2012 Tracey v. Solesky decision, which declared pit bulls “inherently dangerous,” the highest court in Maryland cited the entire abstract of this study. The conclusions by the University Hospital doctors:

pit bull Conclusions: Attacks by pit bulls are associated with higher morbidity rates, higher hospital charges, and a higher risk of death than are attacks by other breeds of dogs. Strict regulation of pit bulls may substantially reduce the US mortality rates related to dog bites.

The majority of the San Antonio Express-News article pertains to this study and a rehearsed rehashing of the 30-year old pit bull debate.

One of the primary authors of the study, Dr. Stephen Cohn, is interviewed in the article. “We’ve had people that have almost lost their legs just going out for a run,”
said Dr. Stephen Cohn, a professor of surgery at the Health Science Center.
“This is a complete hazard for all of us.”

My Legislation Proposal to be enacted by all states,
cities and counties in the US & Canada.

All dogs must be:
Or all dangerous dogs must be:
Or all dangerous molosser breeds, including pit bulls (American Staffordshire Terrier, Staffordshire bull terriers, American pit bull terriers, American Bulldog, Bull mastiffs, dogo argentinos, fila brasieros, presa canarios, Japanese Tosa, cane corsos and their mixes and any dog generally recognized as a pit bull or pit bull terrier and includes a dog of mixed breed with predominant pit bull or pit bull terrier characteristics), rottweilers, chow chows, Doberman pinschers, German shepherds, must be:

* Licensed
* All Pit bull type dogs Micro-chipped with any bite history in database for reference.
* Insured: All dogs must be covered by mandatory liability insurance of $100,000 min. generic and $500,000 after a skin breaking bite with insurance companies based on actuarial statistic’s determining said rate.
* Spayed/neutered (except for limited approved show dog breeders)
* All breeds involved in any bite incident must be kenneled in a locked five-sided enclosure with concrete bottom.

For all other dog owners language can be written that enclosure such as fences must be capable of containing your dog period, such generic language puts the onus on the owner, have the fines be so onerous that said owner will ensure this they make this so.

1,000 the first time, double the second time and permanent confiscation the third time with a ban on said person from owning any dog within city limits, this will create an effective outcome directly or indirectly.
* All dogs must be on leashes outside of home enclosure
* All molosser breeds must also be muzzled outside of home enclosure

* No transport of declared dangerous dogs for the purpose of re-homing. (Dangerous dogs must be dealt with where their history is known.)
* All of the rules listed above also apply to rescues: rescued dogs must be licensed and subject to inspection.

$1,000 fine for noncompliance
Elimination of the one-bite rule in all of the 50 U.S. states
Manslaughter charges for owner of dog that kills a human
Felony charge for owner of dog that mauls human, dog, or other domestic animal.!

lee77

Every one of these “hero pit bull” stories, just like other “hero dog” stories, turn out to be greatly exaggerated or totally fabricated. If someone checked, I’d be willing to bet there are no tears in the boy’s pants where the dog “dragged” him up the hill. Usually, families who claim their pit bull saved someone or did something heroic have an ulterior motive such as attempting to convince landlords to rent to pit bull-owners.

Malcolm

wiseman

Ashton

Why does the mom not want her name used or her face shown on TV? Sounds to me like some of this story is just that… a made up story. Woman is probably a pit bull activist trying her best to pump up the pit bull’s reputation.